Divine Vegan Desserts for Meatless Monday

Are you a vegan? A vegetarian? Occasionally eat a plant-based meal? A longtime vegetarian, Sir Paul McCartney (yes, he's the same singer made famous through the Beatles) developed Meat-free Mondays several years ago. The goal: Help the health of the planet, your own health and animals by giving up meat one day a week, reports PETA.

One challenge for those with children (and those with a sweet tooth): Desserts. Most desserts, from ice cream to pudding to cookies, are made with some form of animal products. After measuring, stirring and lots of sampling (yum), we discovered the following vegan desserts that the whole family will love, whether or not it's Meatless Monday, from One Green Planet.

Raw Vegan Banana Pops Ingredients

Pops
3 bananas
6 chopsticks, skewers, ice cream sticks or whatever holds the ice cream pops

Raw “White” Chocolate and Raspberry Frosting
80 ml melted cacao butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (preferably organic)
80 g cashews
2 tsp agave syrup
A few frozen raspberries, smashed to small pearls

Peanut Butter Frosting
2 tbsp chunky peanut butter
50 ml hot water
A handful of peanuts, roughly chopped

Directions
Cut the bananas in two halves, stick each half on a stick of some sort and freeze overnight. The next day, decorate with the frosting(s) of your choice, freeze again for a few hours and serve ice cold.

Melt the cacao over a bowl of boiled water. Process in a blender with all the ingredients, except the raspberries, until smooth. Dip the banana pops into the white chocolate, or criss cross the melted chocolate over the pops. This makes enough to cover two whole pops.

Whisk vigorously, set aside to cool, then top the banana pops with them and freeze again for several hours. This makes enough to cover 3 to 4 whole pops.

And now, for those who want something gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free and soy-free, we present the best swap for chocolate ice cream that we've tasted.

Chocolate Fudgesicles

gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian, soy-free, egg-free

Ingredients:

2 small ripe avocados
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup raw cacao powder, or cocoa powder
1/3 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup water, or more as needed to blend
1/2 tsp vanilla
Preparation:

Place everything into a blender and blend until smooth. You may need additional water, depending on how thick you want your fudgesicles to be.
Taste, and adjust ingredients (maple syrup, cacao, etc) if necessary.
Pour into popsicle molds and freeze until solid.

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